Counters- Kill it with fire, shroud it in darkness. When facing this weapon your main way to counter it will be to use weapons Fire heavy like Sword of Reif and Dark heavy like Wand of the Dark Faerie. Even marginally blocked weapons or items that can outpace the defense will work well; think Grapes of Wrath and Ghostkersword. But, if you don't like those for whatever reason you can toss a good ol' Super Attack Pea and still get a good 22 icons for your trouble.

Counters- Kill it with fire, shroud it in darkness. When facing this weapon your main way to counter it will be to use weapons Fire heavy like Sword of Reif and Dark heavy like Wand of the Dark Faerie. Even marginally blocked weapons or items that can outpace the defense will work well; think Grapes of Wrath and Ghostkersword. But, if you don't like those for whatever reason you can toss a good ol' Super Attack Pea and still get a good 22 icons for your trouble.

Bonus- 1/1- Not even Fire or Dark will save one's keister if this shield is used in combination with Rod of Dark Nova. When utilized as a combo these weapons can make you practically invulnerable; provided your opponent isn't carrying any elite weapons. I have used this combination many times and have won many battles using these two exclusively.

Overall Rating- 9/10. Aside from its weakness to Fire and Darkness, this is the most well rounded shield in the game. Taking away 5 icons from most weapons is enough to put a pretty good dent in them and sucking up every bit of light is a nice added touch. Overall this weapon is definitely a game changer and if you can afford to you should definitely get it. Is it perfect? No. But is any shield? Well yes. Darigans Shield of Malevolence and Lord Kass Battle Armour are perfect shields but you won't be getting your grubby little virtual hands on them ever; so dream on :P

Overview: The most powerful of the Hidden Tower Shields, the only limiting factor in implementing the Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield is that it is currently not allowed in the L97 league rules and is thus disallowed in any L97 tournaments.

The Good: Besides fully blocking light, which is awesome, the HNMS blocks 5 icons of every other icon type, save for fire and dark. It's easy to see why it would be banned in a league where defense is always higher than strength, as you'd be limited to fire, dark, or major mono-type weapons to even break through this. The HNMS, if used properly can force your opponent into a fire or dark weaponry, which can then be either blocked or reflected. Personally, I like to use it to hide behind for opponents stronger than me. If you're just causally battling and aren't sure what your opponent is going to be dishing out, pairing this with a Hanso Charisma Charm will give you time to see your opponent's weaponry while only allowing fire icons to not get at least partially blocked.

The Bad: Really the biggest negative is that the shield is so strong that it's banned from L97 fights, which limits its viability in the 2p dome. The only other negative is that the shield isn't quite strong enough to hold its own in a battle against Hidden Tower and better weapons. Besides Sword of Thigl, no other Hidden Tower sword is thwarted enough to use defensively in the long term.

The Ugly Truth: As far as Hidden Tower shields go, this is definitely the best, and I would recommend it to anyone to use as their general n...

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Overview: The most powerful of the Hidden Tower Shields, the only limiting factor in implementing the Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield is that it is currently not allowed in the L97 league rules and is thus disallowed in any L97 tournaments.

The Good: Besides fully blocking light, which is awesome, the HNMS blocks 5 icons of every other icon type, save for fire and dark. It's easy to see why it would be banned in a league where defense is always higher than strength, as you'd be limited to fire, dark, or major mono-type weapons to even break through this. The HNMS, if used properly can force your opponent into a fire or dark weaponry, which can then be either blocked or reflected. Personally, I like to use it to hide behind for opponents stronger than me. If you're just causally battling and aren't sure what your opponent is going to be dishing out, pairing this with a Hanso Charisma Charm will give you time to see your opponent's weaponry while only allowing fire icons to not get at least partially blocked.

The Bad: Really the biggest negative is that the shield is so strong that it's banned from L97 fights, which limits its viability in the 2p dome. The only other negative is that the shield isn't quite strong enough to hold its own in a battle against Hidden Tower and better weapons. Besides Sword of Thigl, no other Hidden Tower sword is thwarted enough to use defensively in the long term.

The Ugly Truth: As far as Hidden Tower shields go, this is definitely the best, and I would recommend it to anyone to use as their general non-opponent-specific shield. That being said, if you need light blocking for L97 as well as 1-player, it's better to go with Dr. Sloths Personal Body Armour, which isn't banned from League play. I really want to give this weapon a 10, but its exclusion from the single largest 2 player tournament on Neopets makes it a little less viable of an investment, therefore I must give my favorite weapon in the game a 9.

Tactical 6/6: This shield has massive coverage, leaving holes only for dark and fire. It has superb synergy with the Hanso Charisma Charm, and could be well complemented by a Clawed Shield if you force your opponent to use a Sword of Reif. There's not much point in theorizing about this shield, the defense speaks for itself. Yes, sometimes opponents will tear past it with offense, but this will help you control the pace of a fight and gives you the best defense a multi-use shield can offer in the battledome today.

Why does controlling the pace of the fight matter? Because cheaper ninja training, lab and faerie quest cookies, and the Sword of Lameness are all contributing to a larger pool of high-stat pets with the capability to multi-heal. If you need to stay alive for enough turns to get that 100% heal from your Sword of Lameness, this shield can help you.

Other 1/1: I don't even want to think about what the price of this item will be once it retires. Hubrid Nox was a tough fellow.. if he comes back from the grave and this disappears from the Hidden Tower everyone who didn't buy one (or a few extras) is going to be kicking themselves. If a comparable shield with good air or fire defense gets into the mix, this weapon may become slightly less significant.

Conclusion: This is the best shield available on Neopets currently. Everyone who does not own one should have this on their list for the future, and the sooner you start saving up to purchase one, the better.